My Kids
by Darkness Takes Over
Summary: They weren't just patients to him. They were much more than that. They were like his little brothers and sisters. They were like his kids and he cared for every one of them and always would. Oneshot: Featuring Max from NOES3 Dream Warriors. Please r&r.


**Disclaimer:** I do not own Nightmare on Elm Street or any of the characters involved. They belong to Wes Craven and New Line Cinema.

**Title:** My Kids

**Genre:** Angst/Drama

**Rating: **T – some use of language

**Summary:** They weren't just patients to him. They were much more than that. They were his kids and he cared for every one of them and always would. One shot giving an insight into Max's thoughts of what had happened during NOES3. Set during the end of NOES3.

**My Kids**

**Max's POV**

They're dead. They're fucking dead. This is unbelievable. There is no way that this could be happening.

I sigh sadly and lean back in my chair. It had been nearly half an hour since I found them. Do you ever get a gut feeling that something was wrong? That you should go and check on someone? That is what I had. It was past 11.30pm when I entered the therapy room to find their bodies. Nancy, Taryn and Will lay strewn in their chairs. Crimson red blood stained Will's and Nancy's clothing, the mark of four vicious deep stab wounds. While Taryn to my disbelief had several needle marks on each of her arms, as though she had injected herself with drugs.

As far from what Dr Sims had told me they wouldn't know how Taryn died until the autopsy was carried out. But for Nancy and Will, well it appeared foul play was at hand. Kincaid was screaming and rambling when I found him, standing in the corner of the room. He was repeating over and over that he was asleep. Other than that, I couldn't make any sense out of him. Only he knew what happened in that room. Did someone manage to sneak into the room while I was at my duties? Did someone kill them, but for some reason spared Kincaid? Was the culprit still in the hospital?

I groan and shake my head in discord. No, if there was any sign of struggle I would have heard their screams. I was only at the far end of the corridor talking to one of other male interns. I would have seen or heard_ something_. But it was all silent, not a sound came from that room.

Just what was I going to say to Dr Sims? She was bound to call the police, an investigation would have to be carried out. I would be questioned by them, no doubt about it. Would I be viewed by the police as a suspect? Fuck! This was all I needed!

My head was all over the place as it was, not just after their deaths. But what was going on in the hospital and the town over the last few weeks. It appeared that there was a wide spate of suicides amongst the young teenagers of the town, particularly in the surrounding neighbourhood of Elm Street.

It made me afraid, worried that such young people would think of ending their lives. Not giving themselves the chance to explore their lives, live it to the fullest.

I remember vaguely about three weeks ago how two young boys aged about 15 or so had taken their lives. Slit their own wrists I believe. They had lived just a few doors down from where I lived on Sycamore Drive. I had noticed over the last few weeks before they took their own lives that they appeared tired, forlorn looking and on edge. But I knew that they came from well respected families. Just why would they commit such an act?

There was something fucked up in Springwood and it only dawned on me when more and more kids were admitted to Westin Hills after their failed suicide attempts.

I had heard about Steven Hammond who had cut his eyelids off in a frenzied attempt to stay awake. He was only in the hospital for a few days and I wasn't on the wing working for them few days so I wasn't able to talk to him, to get to know him before that incident. It was a day or so later that he was found dead in his room, his heart had stopped. How could a young boy of 14 have a heart attack? I never had the special connection that I had with the other kids on the ward, but still I grieved for him like I did for Philip and Jennifer. Just as I will have to grieve for Taryn and Will.

Two more of my kids taken from me.

When Philip died that night I just thought I was in the middle of a horrible nightmare. It just wasn't that he had taken his own life, jumped from the tower. But he had actually managed to _escape_ from the ward that was meant to be securely locked up during the night. From what the female nurse told me the next day, Joey had rushed up to her as she manned the desk and was frantically trying to explain to her what was going on. But because he was unable to speak, she wasn't able to understand what was happening until it was too late.

She had told me that she had tried to calm him down, but he grabbed a tray from the counter and scurried back down the ward. Slamming it harshly against the cold walls. From what the night nurse had told him she couldn't move, was too terrified to. She had pressed the alarm button under the desk and had made her way down the ward towards Joey's room where she had heard them screaming, shouting their lungs out! I had also found out from her when she had entered Joey and Will's room she had found them sobbing and whimpering in disbelief at what they had just witnessed. He had jumped. Philip had climbed up to the tower and jumped into the courtyard.

The thing that bothered when she told me this, was how did he get out? The doors were locked. The keys were always kept at the desk and were only used to open the doors out of the ward at 7am when the morning staff arrived. It was a secure ward! Or well, so I fucking thought.

Just when Philips death was hard to understand, the next night was even more hard to take. I knew that Jennifer was upset about Philips death having been quite close to him, but to take her own life in such a violent way? To actually slam her head into that TV screen. Why didn't she talk to me? I was there, I seen her in the TV room. All she had to do was say that she needed someone to talk to. Why didn't she? Was she afraid to talk? Afraid to open up?

I still can't get my head around it, how could she be able to jump that high? It was six feet off of the ground! I heard her screams, as though she was scared of something. But Dr Carver and Dr Sims had brushed it aside, labelling it as a suicide. But why was she screaming? There had to be a reason behind her fear!

I had tried to talk to Dr Gordon after her death, trying to figure out why she did that. Tried to understand what their problems were, I knew it was all connected as they all attended the same therapy group. He had mentioned briefly it was something to do with their dreams and that was why they would try to stay awake each night. I remember stumbling upon a few of them as they congregated in Joey and Will's room. I pretended that I never saw them, but they were pulled the next morning by Dr Sims. I never liked her, she seemed too bossy, never knew how to connect to the kids, to relate to them.

If there was something wrong with their dreams then why didn't they tell me? I knew about their backgrounds, how they opened up to me about their families and friends. Why not this? Was it so bad to talk about it? Where they afraid that I would judge them? Believe that they were crazy? They had to have known that I looked at them as my younger brothers and sisters, as my own kids! I wouldn't have mocked them or judge them in any way. I cared for each of them. Even now I feel as though I had let them down, failed them in a way. From what I could tell they seemed to be more open around Nancy Thompson, the new doctor. That they could tell her about their dreams and _not_ me.

Don't get me wrong, I was glad that a new doctor had arrived at the hospital, go give a new perspective and view on what was gong on. But I was wary of her at first. The first day I met her she had successfully managed to calm down Kristen who was just admitted an hour or so before. She was hysterical, screaming and crying. It was hard to get her under control, there was so much rage in her. But it was rage that stemmed from her fear, of some unknown terror she had faced.

Dr Thompson had arrived when Kristen was trying to finish off some rhyme. I had never heard of it before, but the new doctor did. From that moment on I knew that Nancy and Kristen would grow to be friends. I was right, over the course of the last week their relationship grew in strength. But not just with her and Kristen, but with her and all the kids.

It was something that I _envied_.

I knew that she wouldn't have hurt them in any way, but still I had to be on my guard. When she came to see me earlier asking, or well more or less begging me to see them one last time, I felt sorry for her. I knew that she wanted to say her goodbyes to them and I knew that she deserved one last time to see them. I would have wanted the same thing too if I was in her position. I knew that she never hurt them. But something had happened in that room, something that only Kincaid knew about. I had to talk to him, but not now. He was in the medical room accompanied by Drs Sims. When he was taken from the room he was rambling on and on about his dreams, about some guy in his dreams. He was saying that this guy had killed the others, but they had won in the end. They had defeated him.

i groan soft, confused even more by the events of the night. By god as my witness I would find out what happened to them. They were my kids after all.

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><p><strong>AUTHOR'S NOTE:<strong> This is dedicated as belated birthday present to BuffyKrueger. Hope you liked it! :) Please review people! Thanks.


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